The Women of Poe

A Poe story which fuses the themes of transcendence and lost love is "Ligeia," Poe's own favorite of his tales. The story's narrator marries a woman of exquisite beauty--a woman named Ligeia. To the narrator (and to Poe, naturally), she is the perfect woman, for she possesses classical beauty, expanded intellect, and spiritual purity. He makes Ligeia his wife. The narrator describes at length the strange attributes of his bride--her raven-black, luxuriant hair; her low, …

…the narrator again finds love in a woman named Ermengarde, but suffers the guilt engendered by the remembrance of Eleonora. In its poetic conclusion, a voice, presumably Eleonora's own, tells the narrator to "sleep in peace!--for the Spirit of Love reigneth and ruleth, and, in taking to thy passionate heart her who is Ermengarde, thou art absolved, for reasons which shall be make known to thee in Heaven, of thy vows unto Eleonora" (Poe 517).